


Solid Choice

by daisynorbury



Category: Lewis (TV)
Genre: Episode: s06e01 The Soul of Genius, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 13:55:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11899155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daisynorbury/pseuds/daisynorbury
Summary: The night after the close ofThe Soul of Genius, Lewis and Hathaway have a long conversation. This is glimpses into it. They're in chronological order, but there's at least one missing scene between each chapter.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I recently had to make a difficult personal decision, and I'm currently in day 3 of a 5-day period of sleeping in the sad, uncomfortable bed I made. I decided that instead of wallowing (okay, _in addition_ to wallowing), I'd write a fluffy little snippet for each of those 5 days. I was already in the early stages of a Lewis-and-Hathaway-talking-at-length thing, and decided to try to distill 5 parts of their conversation into double drabbles: 100 words for each of them. (Except in the case of #2, wherein Robbie's mysterious Subbuteo-master brother gets 100 words too, so 300 total.) I've never tried to do anything like this before, and while it was interesting, I now know I dislike futzing over wordcount. Bah!

“So what about that Liv, then?”

James blinks, frowning. “Wh… How is that related?”

“It’s not, I’m just asking.”

James peers down the neck of his beer bottle. “She withheld evidence.”

“She didn’t ‘withhold evidence’, she just didn’t know what to do. It’s not always so clear. Anyway, she liked you.”

“That's not enough. I’d’ve had to like her, too."

“Didn’t you?”

“Didn’t get a chance to find out, did I? Before she withheld evidence. And I seem to remember you telling me you’d only say it once.”

“I’m not saying it.”

“Just implying. And what about that Michelle, then?”

“Nothing about her. Maybe I understand her, is all. After Val… the only reason I wasn’t a cop-botherer m’self is that I was a cop already.”

“How did she take you agreeing with the coroner?”

Lewis raises an eyebrow in question.

James mimes inverted commas with his fingers and says “Misadventure.”

“Oh. Not well. I hope now she can start to see her son as a human being rather than a saint, but…”

“... But the dead don’t make mistakes.”

“And it’s all we living can do.”

James nods, rueful.

 

They drink, as one: bottles rise, tip, pour, and fall again.


	2. Chapter 2

“And all because Thea Falconer is dying.”

“No. Falconer made his choices, Wright made hers. They don’t get a pass because they’re heartbroken.”

“You know I’m not saying they do. Just that none of it would have happened otherwise.”

“Mm. Human condition, I think.”

“True enough.”

James kicks off his shoes. “Oh, talking of- I didn’t know you had a brother.”

Lewis nods, smiling a bit. “Oh, aye.”

“You get on?”

“Mm. Don’t see him much- maybe that’s why- but we always have a laugh. We were hardly best mates as kids- who is?- but later, yeah. Cricket, rugby, took me out with his friends. Even helped me revise for my O-levels, back when. Mad, he is. I asked him to sing at my wedding do- more fool me- not the ceremony mind you, but the party after- and, well.”

James waits. The ceiling lamp swims a bit, making purple trails across his retinas. He swallows a hiccup. Lewis doesn’t seem to be continuing, so James turns to look at him. “Well?”

“It started all right, but he’d arranged with the band behind my back that halfway through the first verse they’d switch to Muskrat Love.” James bursts out laughing, and Lewis follows right behind.

Laughing isn’t something James does enough, and it feels good. It and the beer make him feel… loose. Easier about things. He smiles at Lewis. “I must meet this man. Where does he live?”

“Barcelona.”

“Oh. Well, what’s he called?”

Lewis looks away; taking a long pull on his beer. He exhales slowly. “Jamie. Though nearly everyone calls him Jaime now.”

James tilts his head. “Your brother’s name is James and in five years you never said?”

Lewis rubs the foot of the bottle against the top of his thigh.

“Well, you know. Didn’t want to cast a shadow.”


	3. Chapter 3

“So this Jamie. Family resemblance?”

Lewis chuckles. “Hardly, worse luck. He’s the looker in the family.”

“Impossible.”

“What?”

“More so than you? No chance."

Lewis stares at him, then frowns.

James grins.

Lewis scowls as he apparently decides that James is taking the piss. “Oi. We can’t all be Paul Newman.”

“Wouldn’t’ve thought Newman was your type. More… Connery.”

Lewis swats his shoulder. “Give over.”

“If Jamie ever comes to visit, I hope you’ll introduce us.”

“So you can give him a hard time, too?”

“What, forgo my chance to meet the even-dishier Lewis brother?”

Lewis turns away, looking resigned. He says again, more quietly, “Give over.”

James drops his head to the back of the sofa, looking up. “You always think I’m having you on.”

“You always are.”

James’ eyes slide shut. “Often. Not always.”

Lewis stares straight ahead.

James lets the silence stretch.

 

“It’s Friday. Shouldn’t you be out being young?”

“I could say the same to you.”

“You really couldn’t.”

“I’m not here because you’re some sort of... default. I like it here.”

  


Lewis extends his arm until his beer hovers over the midpoint of the sofa.

James mirrors him; bottles clink.

“Cheers,” says Lewis, softly.


	4. Chapter 4

Robbie’s stunned. He can’t think of a way to interpret that that doesn’t boil down to Hathaway admitting he thinks Robbie’s attractive. Which is a mighty odd thing for him to say, or even suggest. Maybe it only sounds that way because Robbie wants it to. Which fact he recognized only recently, and has barely begun trying to understand. He can feel tendrils of possible futures spooling away, each one nudged by the next words he chooses.

“Not Connery.”

“Steve McQueen, then.”

“Like writing reports, do you?”

“Not gonna tell me, are you?”

“Tell you _what?_ ”

“Who your type is.”

“What’s got into you?”

Hathaway retrieves his discarded bottle and holds the mouth up to his left eye. “Look into the pewter pot to see the world as the world’s not.”

“Val.”

James' arm falls as heavily as his face does. “Oh. Oh, God, I’m sorry, that was thoughtless.”

“And Jimmy Stewart.”

Hathaway turns, eyes bright, and gazes at him a long, long, slow, silent minute. Then: “Solid choice.”

“Kind of you to approve. Go on, then.”

“Sorry?”

“You got my type outta me; now it’s your turn.”

“Pretty sure I said mine just a minute ago.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Look into the pewter pot to see the world as the world's not.](https://stuff.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/poetry/poems/terence.html)


	5. Chapter 5

“James, don’t- “ James stares at his mouth. Lewis firms his tone. “Sergeant.” Hathaway’s eyes snap up. “If you still want… when you’re sober… talk to me then.”

Hathaway blinks, wide and owlish. “Of course I still want you when I’m sober- that’s when I _can’t_ talk to you! Why d’you think I...?” He waves blurrily beside his head.

Lewis sighs. “Dunno why you trained the beer-goggles on me tonight, but I think you should wait ‘til they’re off again before you say anything else.”

“Because all the coffee-goggles do is convince me you’d be happier without me and I’m tired of it, even if I know it’s true. Because this way I can pretend for a bit that I _could_ talk to you later, and somehow say something that would make you so happy that… you’d want…” Hathaway's chin drops to his chest, jaw muscles bunched.

Robbie's determined to stay calm, despite knowing just how terribly wrong all this could go. He lays a hand on Hathaway’s shoulder and squeezes. “James. I do. Just... not with the impaired judgement, all right? Go home, sleep...“ He pitches his voice a few notes lower, “...And I promise you we’ll talk tomorrow.”


End file.
